Method of improving coffee.



, plant.

AXEL EDMUND BERNHARD GRAM, OF COPENHAGEN, DENMARK.

METHOD OF HVi PRVENG COFFEE.

To call w/wm it may concern:

Be it known that I, AxEL EDMUND BERN- HARD GRAM, a subject of the King of Denmark, and a resident of Copenhagen, Denmark, have invented a new and useful Method of Improving Coffee, which invention is fully set forth in the following specification. I

It is well known that many articles the flavor or odor of which depends on a greater or smaller content of certain aromatic sub stances frequently do not possess their good qualities to such extent as when they have been subjected to a longer or shorter'seasoning. Coffee, for example, is sometimes sea soned for several years for this purpose. It is obvious that such seasoning increases the price of the goods concerned to a great extent, owing to the loss of time and interest.

Considerable space is required also, and the seasoning has often an injurious efiect on other goodproperties of the goods. A

The invention relates, to a method by which it,in a very short time, can givecoffee, and tea the qualities required, so that the ex pensive seasoning is avoided, the required increase of flavor and odor being eflected comparatively quickly.

It is known t6 promote the ripening of such articles by oxidation by using oxygen or ozone; nor is it somethin new to use nitric oxids for improving artidles of food, as If, however, coffee or the like is mixed with ozone, its good qualities will depend on using just the correct amount of ozone, which isv very difficult to carry through in practice. The treatment with ozone requires, moreover, a very'expensive According to the resent inventioncofiee or tea 1s treated wit nitric oxids, (nitrogen dioxid.NO Ifnotadzooigreat surplus of this is used, it' 'does not damage these goods in any way. As dry air char ed with nitric oxid may be used as far as the solid goods areconcerned, no arran 'ement for removing an eventual surplus of t e medium for treating is required. -The treatment with nitric oxids is, .moreover, much cheaper than the treatment with ozone.

For the purpose of illustrating the pre-, ferred method of carrying out the invention as applied to coffee, the raw unroasted coffeebeans are passed, by gravity, through a tube made, preferably, of wood,having at its lower end a slide for regulating the flow of the Specification of Letters Patent.

subjectin Patented Feb. 5, 1907.

Application filed June 5, 1906- Serial No. 320.366.

beans. Through an opening near the base of the tube an acid-forming oxid of nitrogen, such as nitric-oxid gas, is introduced toact upon the beans, preferably at the ordinary temperature of the room, as they slowly pass through the tube. The quantity of nitric oxid: required for a given weight of beans varies within wide limits, depending upon the kind of beans and the flavor and odor desired. As the result of experiment it has been foundthat for about three hundred and seventy grams of coffee two hundred and fifty cubic centimeters of nitric-oxid gas under ordinary conditions of temperature and pressure are an extreme limit. Usually a smaller quantity of nitric-oxid gas for this weight of coffee-beans suffices for bringing out the desired flavor. The coffee beans are then roasted in the usual manner.

As the apparatus referred to above forms no part of the present invention and may be p aced by any other arrangement whereby the beans may be subjected to the action of the gas, it is deemed unnecessary to show it in a drawing.

Inthe specific illustration of the process I have described its application to raw coffeebeans; but, it is equally applicable to tealeaves for bringing out their flavor and odor.

In the claimsl have only mentioned coffee;

yet it is to be understood that I do not desire to limit the application of the method to coffee alone, as it is equally applicable to tealeaves.. i

The method consists, therefore, mainly in the goods concerned for some time to t e action of nitricoxids (especially nitrogen dioxid) or air charged w1th this substance, whereby the required effect is quickly obtained. Having thus described my invention, I

claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patentv q 1. The process of improving the odor and flavor of coffee, consisting in mingling unroasted coffee with an acid forming oxid of nitrogen whereby the gas reacts on said coffee" to develop its odor and flavor. I

2. The process of improving the odor and flavor of coffee consisting in.-mingling un-, roasted cofl'ee with nitrogen dioxid whereby the gas reacts on said cofiee to develop its odor and flavor.

3? The process of improving theodor and flavor ofcoflee consisting in mingling unroasted coffee with nitrogen dioxid and air In testimony whereof I have signedv this specification in the presence of two subscrib- 4. The process of improving the odor and ing Witnesses.

flavor of coffee consisting in mingling un- AXEILEDMUND BERNHARD GRAM.

roasted coffee With nitrogen dioxid to react Witnesses:

on the coffee to develop its odor and flavor JAN CHRISTOPHERSEN,

and then roasting the resulting product. VIGGO BLoM.

whereby the gas reacts on said cofliee to-develop its odor and flavor. 

